SENATOBIA – Northwest and East Central split the final MACJC regular season doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Jim Miles Field, with the Warriors earning a 6-3 win in the opener before a 5-3 bounce back win for the Rangers in the nightcap.
With the split, Northwest moved to 29-17 overall and finished conference play 17-11 to finish runner-up in the MACJC. ECCC moved to 31-15 and 17-11.
Northwest will host Copiah-Lincoln (20-25) on May 11-12 in an MACJC best-of-3 series. The Rangers are making their ninth straight postseason appearance, while Co-Lin is making its first since 2005.
Game 1 – East Central 6, Northwest 3
Two-out hitting was the difference in the game one win for East Central, with the Warriors scoring five of their six runs with two outs and the Rangers stranding 10 baserunners. ECCC jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings and rode the arm of Cole Gray for four relief innings to close the game.
Shutout the first four frames, Northwest got on the board in the fifth with
Aaron Campbell's fielder's choice to second.
ECCC answered the run in the eighth with Billy Cameron's solo home run to right that bounced off the top of the fence and over.
Zack Pope's sac fly brought the Rangers back within 6-2 headed to the final frame where
Dakota Dailey's RBI-groundout made the final 6-3.
Dalton Minton (6-4) was hit early for five runs but hung five zeros in seven innings on a season-high 126 pitches.
Nathan Harrison allowed one run on two hits the final two innings.
David Herrington and
Brooks Boolos had four of the Rangers' six hits. ECCC finished with just seven in game one.
Game 2 – Northwest 5, East Central 3
Scoreless after the first two frames, Northwest capitalized off two Warrior errors over the third and fourth innings to jump ahead 5-1 but made things interesting late and had to escape a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the seventh to hang on for a 5-3 win in the nightcap.
Northwest responded to a single run for ECCC in the third with three in the bottom half. Campbell's sac bunt forced a three-base throwing error that scored both Dailey and Herrington. Campbell then scored on a passed ball to make it 3-1.
Pope's sac bunt in the fourth once again forced an errant throw for ECCC and
Brody Catt scored after a leadoff walk. Dailey followed two batters later with a sac fly to extend the Ranger lead to 5-1.
Cameron's RBI-groundout pulled the Warriors within 5-2 after six.
Jarod Wright worked into the seventh but gave up a walk and single to bring in
J.G. Lipscomb from the bullpen. Lipscomb hit the first batter he faced and walked in a run on the next to make it 5-3 before inducing a fielder's choice and game-ending 5-3 double play for the save.
Wright (7-3) scattered six hits, three runs and two strikeouts in six frames to pick up his third win in seven days. Lipscomb picked up his 10th save of the season, a new Northwest single-season record, and tied Tyler Scholl's all-time saves record with the 11th of his career.
Northwest will now turn its attention to Copiah-Lincoln and the MACJC playoffs May 11-12 at Jim Miles Field. All games will be streamed live at
nwccrangers.com/watch and live stats will also be available.
Game 1 – Thursday, May 11, 3 p.m.
Game 2 – Friday, May 12, 2 p.m.
Game 3 – Friday, May 12, 5:30 p.m. (if nec.)
